Chris Farren. Photo by Kat Nijmeddin
The FADER’s “Songs You Need” are the tracks we can’t stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist.
Maybe it's because I grew up in the era of Girls, Mean and Channels, Disney, but there's a certain kind of song that will always register to me as "high school movie opening credits music." Allow me to explain. Picture establishing shots of kids on the way to their classes; maybe it's the first day back after summer vacation, the guys are tossing a football back and forth on the front lawn while girls apply lip gloss in their compact locker mirrors. Whatever song is playing, it probably sounds a lot like Chris Farren.
"My idea for a movie / everything turns out great for me," Farren sings on "Get Over U," an instant standout from his new record Doom Singer. The Floridian songwriter (although he "NOW LIVES IN LOS ANGELES FOR THE NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES") has a decorated pop-punk pedigree — almost a decade of solo releases plus a stint alongside Jeff Rosenstock in Antarctigo Vespucci — that explains his knack for bitchin' hooks. On Doom Singer, those gifts are put in service of everything from surf rock to '70s AM radio gold, but "Get Over U" is far and away the canniest blend of song and subject.
Farren continues his reverie: "There's no discomfort or conflict, and every door swings wide open for me." Sounds great, right? But it's just a coping mechanism, and by the second verse, his teenage dream starts to come undone. Turns out, Farren's gone through a breakup that, in traditional IRL breakup fashion, is anything but simple, and no amount of power chords and charisma can cover up the fear that he'll be heartbroken forever. In one fell swoop, he reminds us why we love rom-coms and why our lives can never be like them.